Guryong Bookstore was a place where numerous buildings were packed together on a plot of land so vast it could be considered a village.
The location of the archives varied depending on the genre of the book and whether it was new or used, and the sheer number of volumes was staggering.
It was a place so immense that even the bookstore employees did not know exactly which books were there or how many existed.
Because its history spanned over several hundred years and it served as the largest axis of book distribution on the continent, many rumors surrounded it.
‘Deep within Guryong Bookstore, an undiscovered divine technique lies dormant!’
‘An absolute martial art left behind by a grandmaster from three generations ago is waiting for its destined successor!’
‘No! It is not an absolute martial art, but absolute magic!’
These were not merely baseless rumors.
In fact, many people had obtained something worthwhile for a reasonable price at Guryong Bookstore.
Generally, first-class martial arts manuals or Hybrid techniques were hard to find on the market, but people occasionally claimed to have purchased them at Guryong Bookstore.
Consequently, many visitors sought out the bookstore in hopes of such a fortuitous encounter.
“Please stand in a single line and maintain order.”
The line to enter the bookstore stretched long.
In front of the entrance, where a crowd of people bustled about, Lee Tae-sung quietly took his place at the back.
The line shortened quickly, and Tae-sung reached the entrance faster than expected.
The guard looked at him and asked, “Where are you headed?”
“I am going to Red Area 56.”
It was the location the Flame Emperor had told him to visit.
“You are going to a high-level area. The rate is two gold coins per hour. The first hour must be paid in advance.”
“……”
With a trembling hand, Tae-sung opened his pouch and handed over a gold coin.
‘I heard about it beforehand, but… it really is heart-wrenchingly expensive.’
Guryong Bookstore wanted to attract a diverse range of customers, from those dreaming of a fortuitous encounter to ordinary people.
To do that, they needed to have a vast inventory of books, so they paid high prices to people who came to sell them.
Old books rolling around at home, books picked up on the street, and books gathering dust after being read — books containing knowledge were usually treated as precious, but the story changed when the sale price was high.
Since Guryong Bookstore paid in gold coins for any reasonably useful book, people from all over the continent came to sell them.
Naturally, the bookstore passed that burden onto the customers who came to buy books.
Despite being a bookstore, there was an entrance fee, and additional fees had to be paid upon purchasing a book.
‘Phew. It can’t be helped. Let’s find it quickly and go.’
This was an investment.
Tae-sung didn’t know what kind of sword technique the Flame Emperor had left here, but considering the Heavenly Fire Holy Law Art or the Heavenly Net Flame Hand, it certainly wouldn’t be anything mediocre.
It was bound to be a high-level skill that the current Tae-sung wouldn’t normally be able to obtain.
Thinking about that, a few gold coins shouldn’t be a waste.
‘…No. That’s not it. The gold coins are definitely a waste.’
He had paid for one hour in advance, but Tae-sung intended to find the book and leave as quickly as possible.
A debuff zone where gold coins leaked out just by standing still — nothing could be more horrifying.
Guryong Bookstore was divided into areas based on the colors of the rainbow, and among them, Tae-sung was heading to Area 56.
He planned to quickly find the Flame Emperor’s skill inside and depart.
If he focused on trying to find something else for no reason and several hours passed, his pockets would be emptied in an instant.
“…What is this?”
Tae-sung, who had rushed to Area 56, stopped in his tracks despite himself.
What stood before him was not just a bookshelf or two.
There were as many as six large buildings standing side by side.
Each building had a sign planted in the ground that read “Area 56.”
Gulping, he stepped inside.
‘Surely… the inside will be mostly empty.’
However, the sight that followed betrayed Tae-sung’s expectations.
The interior was so densely packed that there was hardly any room to step.
Furthermore, it wasn’t a single-story building; it had five floors above ground and even a basement.
Upon checking, those floors were also filled to the ceiling with crowded bookshelves.
On top of that, there were numerous old books piled haphazardly in the corners like trash because they hadn’t been organized.
It was an overwhelming sight.
***
“Ha, wow. This is driving me crazy.”
Tae-sung let out a hollow laugh.
It wasn’t because he was amused.
He had already spent nearly 2 hours rummaging through the bookshelves, but he had achieved nothing.
The Flame Emperor hadn’t told him the name of the skill book he had left behind.
He had simply said that if Tae-sung went there, there would be something useful.
Because of that, he had to take out every single book and examine it, which consumed an immense amount of time.
It wasn’t something he could distinguish at a glance; some books contained strange, vague nonsense that required a long time to read and understand.
Adding the books he had set aside as ‘pending’ because he wasn’t sure even after reading them, he didn’t know how much time it would take to search this entire archive.
Tae-sung decided to log out for now.
Fortunately, for an Outsider, the time count stopped the moment they logged out after speaking.
*Pshhh*
He rose from the capsule.
It was time to get off the plane.
In fact, under normal circumstances, the flight should have ended long ago.
How long could it possibly take to fly from China to Korea?
Beijing to Incheon took 3 to 4 hours at most.
However, because he couldn’t stop the Dragon Knights Quest in the middle, he had hurriedly told the pilot to fly around a bit longer.
This was possible because the private jet had departed with a full load of fuel, but even that had reached its limit.
The private jet landed at Incheon Airport.
The aircraft came to a safe stop, and the dock was connected.
As he walked down the stairs, he saw familiar faces.
“Guild Leader Tae-sung. You’ve worked hard getting here. I’ve heard all about your activities in China. Congratulations.”
Section Chief Song Sang-yeop of the Association was the first to greet him, and behind him was Vice Guild Leader Kang Woo-joo.
“Guild Leader…”
“Woo-joo. You’ve worked hard.”
Tae-sung lightly hugged Kang Woo-joo and patted his shoulder as if he understood everything.
While Tae-sung had been half-playing (?) in China, Kang Woo-joo had been doing all the hard work.
He was the number one contributor to the Taesung Guild!
However, Song Sang-yeop was looking at Kang Woo-joo with a dissatisfied gaze.
“By the way, couldn’t you have just waited in the office, Woo-joo?”
“The Guild Leader is arriving, so of course I have to come out to meet him.”
“Doesn’t that delay the packaging? Especially at a time like this when we should be producing and supplying even one more bottle.”
“……!”
As elixirs were supplied, the overall level of Korean Hunters would rise.
If their mana capacity increased, they could use a skill one more time, which would change their survival rate in missions.
Therefore, selling elixirs was not just a matter of the Taesung Guild’s success.
Supplying elixirs to not just Rankers, but as many Hunters as possible, to level up Korean Hunters as a whole!
That was the current goal of the National Hunter Association.
Naturally, Kang Woo-joo glared at Song Sang-yeop with a look one might give a wicked, villainous factory owner.
But Song Sang-yeop remained undaunted.
“To be honest, it’s not physically taxing for you, is it?”
“……”
Kang Woo-joo had nothing to say because it was true.
For someone like Kang Woo-joo, who was called the best rookie of last year, simple packaging labor didn’t cause a single drop of sweat.
Only the insane boredom was eating away at his mind.
“You have no idea how tedious and boring that task is. Besides, I only feel sorry for using a high-level talent like Kang Woo-joo that way.”
When Tae-sung stepped in to defend him, Kang Woo-joo sent him a look of deep moved.
“Guild Leader…!”
“And I’ve brought employees to help. They’ll have to learn Korean gradually from now on, but there won’t be any problems with them working.”
New employees of the Taesung Guild, formerly slaves, followed him off the plane.
Peipei would work as a Hunter guild member, and the other fourteen people would work as general staff.
Kang Woo-joo rushed over and grabbed their hands.
“You’ve arrived! I’ll treat you really well! Thanks to all of you, I think I can finally find something called a daily life!”
***
Tae-sung arrived at the office.
The two new Hunters he had recruited previously welcomed the employees he brought more warmly than they welcomed Tae-sung himself.
‘Fi-finally, freedom!’
‘I can rest too!’
Their reactions were no different from Kang Woo-joo’s.
They had endured this long out of respect for Tae-sung, who was this year’s top rookie and had become a Ranker in the shortest time ever.
Otherwise, they would have cursed the working conditions and transferred long ago.
“You’ve all worked very hard. It’s thanks to all of you that the guild ran so well even in my absence.”
This was not empty praise.
When he actually checked the ledgers and examined the factory entry logs and delivery status, he saw that the sales were on fire.
They had finished the first supply to large guilds, were preparing for the second supply, and were negotiating contracts with small and medium-sized guilds for their first supply.
‘I’ll have to expand the factory too.’
He thought he should ask Abeson to find a way to increase production.
He wondered if the Lowest Grade Elixir magic circle could be modified.
“Guild Leader. Have you checked the account where the contract fees and payments were deposited?”
“No, not yet.”
“Money is the most important issue, so you should check it. What if I embezzled something?”
With a grin, Kang Woo-joo handed over the bankbook.
Tae-sung’s eyes widened when he checked it.
‘…How many zeros are there?’
An amount he never imagined he could earn was printed there.
The reward money he received in China was substantial, but this made that look like pocket change.
And this was only a portion of the first supply payment and contract fees.
Much more money would be coming in the future.
‘Wait. This means… I’ve become rich.’
He had wanted to be rich since his days working at a small company, but that moment had suddenly arrived in an instant.
It was bewildering, and it didn’t quite feel real yet.
He had known in his heart that this would happen someday; it was just a matter of time.
More than that, his first thought was of the Dream World.
Tae-sung’s eyes sparkled.
Guryong Bookstore was sucking up his gold coins, but it seemed he had found a breakthrough.
***
Although he had returned to Korea, Tae-sung’s daily routine did not change.
In fact, there were many things to do in reality if he chose to, but what was urgent for Tae-sung right now was finding the skill the Flame Emperor mentioned at Guryong Bookstore.
Logging back into the game, he left the bookstore and went to a secluded back alley in the city of Hyrax.
‘He said it was around here!’
He entered the alley and moved toward the designated location.
He was wearing a hooded robe pulled down low to hide his face.
— If you go there, you will find a meeting place.
Not even a few hours after his tearful farewell (?) with Brother Jang Xuan, he had called him again.
It was to exchange real-world money in the Dream World.
Jang Xuan had been able to enter the Red Magic Tower immediately after creating his character by spending a massive amount of money.
How else could he have obtained the gold coins used for the donation?
Although the Dream World did not officially support it, people sometimes traded Dream World currency for real-world money through private transactions.
Wealthy individuals needed massive amounts of currency to enjoy the game, and thanks to that, there were even brokers who exchanged cash for gold coins.
Tae-sung didn’t know how to meet a broker, but when he asked Jang Xuan, the man had kindly informed him.
He even went as far as to find out how and where to meet one in Hyrax.
Thanks to that, the processing was very fast.
Between the folds of his hood, Tae-sung’s eyes flashed.
‘Just you wait, Guryong Bookstore.’
I’m going to bombard you with money!